It'd be fine if this were actually a territorial system.
Dropbox develops its software in the US, markets from the US, does basically everything in the US. Yet for some reason service payments goes to Dropbox Ireland.
It's not representative of reality, and neither is Apple profits not going back to the US headquarters. The work was done in the US, the profit is going to be handed back to the shareholders. The R&D is in the US. The only thing Apple Japan (for example) is doing is reselling Apple US stuff. There's no real reason for the local subsidiary to book the entire profit.
There's a reason people find this problematic. It's because it's a tax game not representative of what's happening in the real world.
Dropbox develops its software in the US, markets from the US, does basically everything in the US. Yet for some reason service payments goes to Dropbox Ireland.
It's not representative of reality, and neither is Apple profits not going back to the US headquarters. The work was done in the US, the profit is going to be handed back to the shareholders. The R&D is in the US. The only thing Apple Japan (for example) is doing is reselling Apple US stuff. There's no real reason for the local subsidiary to book the entire profit.
There's a reason people find this problematic. It's because it's a tax game not representative of what's happening in the real world.